ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we look to autobiography, a sub-genre of narrative inquiry, as a reflexive technique that allows teachers—language teachers, specifically—to explore their own changing identities. Authors such as Elbaz-Luwisch (2002) and Johnson and Golombek (2011) claim that such reflective activities can be employed as professional development because they allow teachers to analyze their own practices and their students’ learning while also helping teachers develop their own identities. The goal of this study was to discover how autobiographical writing and reflection on the act of that writing helped Laura and Alexis (authors 2 and 3) to “link and clarify tensions that seem, at first glance, to have no relationship to one another” (Johnson & Golombek, 2002) and to “question and reinterpret their ways of knowing” (Johnson & Golombek, 2002). Specifically, Laura and Alexis, two English Language teachers, wrote their autobiographies focusing on their experiences working with newcomer refugee and immigrant students and then reflected on the act of writing to understand how writing assisted them in growing and understanding themselves as teachers. We conclude that autobiographical writing can, indeed, provide for a rich professional development practice and should be considered as an option for language teachers as they seek to understand their identities.
